Liz Truss has been named the next Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, replacing Boris Johnson as Britain’s next leader.
Truss was announced as the new leader of the United Kingdom’s Conservative Party, having defeated her rival, Rishi Sunak, in a Tory vote where she polled 81,326 votes to beat Sunak who polled 60,399 votes.
47-year-old Truss becomes Britain’s 56th Prime Minister and the third UK female Prime Minister after Margaret Thatcher and Theresa May.
Here are some things to know about her.
1. Liz Truss (Mary Elizabeth Truss) was born on July 26, 1975, in Oxford, England, to John Kenneth and Priscilla Mary Truss.
2. Her father is an emeritus professor of pure mathematics at the University of Leeds while her mother was a nurse, teacher and member of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament.
3. Truss attended West Primary School in Paisley, Scotland. She then attended Roundhay School, in the Roundhay area of Leeds.
4. She read Philosophy, Politics, and Economics at Merton College, Oxford, graduating in 1996.
5. Truss was active in the Liberal Democrats. She was president of Oxford University Liberal Democrats and a member of the national executive committee of Liberal Democrat Youth and Students. During her time as a Liberal Democrat, Truss supported the legalisation of cannabis and the abolition of the monarchy.
6. She joined the Conservative Party in 1996.
7. Truss worked for Shell from 1996 t0 2000, during which time she qualified as a Chartered Management Accountant in 1999.
8. She was employed by Cable & Wireless in 2000 and rose to economic director before leaving in 2005.
9. Truss served as the chair of the Lewisham Deptford Conservative Association from 1998 to 2000.
10. She unsuccessfully contested the Greenwich London Borough Council elections in 1998 (for Vanbrugh ward) and 2002 (in Blackheath Westcombe).
11. She was elected as a councillor for Eltham South in the Greenwich London Borough Council election on May 4, 2026.
12. Under David Cameron as Conservative leader, Truss was added to the party’s ‘A List’.
13. On September 4, 2012, Truss was appointed as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Department for Education, with responsibility for childcare and early learning, assessment, qualifications and curriculum reform, behaviour and attendance, and school food review.
14. In a July 15, 2014 cabinet reshuffle, Truss was appointed Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, replacing Owen Paterson.
15. On July 14, 2016, Truss was appointed as Secretary of State for Justice and Lord Chancellor in Theresa May’s first ministry. She became the first woman to hold either position and the first female Lord Chancellor in the thousand-year history of the office.
16. On June 11, 2017, following the general election, she was moved to the position of Chief Secretary to the Treasury.
17. She was promoted by Boris Johnson to the position of Secretary of State for International Trade and President of the Board of Trade. Following the resignation of Amber Rudd, Truss was additionally appointed Minister for Women and Equalities.
18. On September 15, 2021, during a cabinet reshuffle, Johnson promoted Truss from International Trade Secretary to Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Affairs, thus becoming the second woman to hold the position after Margaret Beckett.
19. Truss announced her intention to run in the Conservative Party leadership election to replace Boris Johnson after the latter’s resignation on July 10, 2022,
20. On September 5, 2022, Truss won the Conservative Party’s election as party leader, beating her rival, Sunak.
